What Business Should I Start? – Part 1

Most of us have known for a loooong time that we wanted to start / own our own businesses and be free from ‘The Man’ – and most of us, failing a eureka moment have for a similiar time been sitting there thinking what business should i start!

Look at Yourself

I think one of the first places to start and possibly the most obvious – is what am I good at? what do I do well? What am I interested in?

For me, in the first instance this was graphic design. I could thus, setup a company which used my skill and sold it as a service to other businesses or individuals. Your skill could be absolutely anything, perhaps not defined by a qualification – such as your really organised in life? coudl you be an event planner or a virtual PA? Either way, whatever your interest / skill is – have a look at it in detail; are you in a position to offer it to others,it will offer you a solid base for business if it is a skill that you yourself currently have.

What’s Hot – What’s Not?

Research is something you should be executing without prejudice if your interested in starting a business. Thus, it makes sense to have a look into what businesses will:

• Be sustainable
• Profitable
• Are within growing markets
• Have been done – been done very very well
• Have barriers to entry
• Are not viable

There are lots of methods of researching your given interest / idea to determine what of the above it falls into. The essential point is that you do not go running into an idea without checking if anyone is going to care about your ‘wonderful’ idea.

Entrepreneur.com has a great tool, which you cna input ideas into and see potential business ideas. It is on the right hand side of this page. called the Business Finder.

Next time, should hopefully note something about looking at society for ideas and gaps in markets. Any thoughts on the above?